


signs

by shinsouaizawa



Series: green & yellow [10]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Deaf, Deaf Character, Eventual Roronoa Zoro/Vinsmoke Sanji, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-19 00:27:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29617782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinsouaizawa/pseuds/shinsouaizawa
Summary: “Ultimately it’s your Captain’s choice; take him, don’t take him, it’s up to you, but don’t you dare make his disability the reasoning behind your decision, he deserves better than to be judged for something he had no control over.”A deaf!sanji fic set through the series.
Relationships: Roronoa Zoro/Vinsmoke Sanji
Series: green & yellow [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1905427
Comments: 5
Kudos: 75





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on tumblr @finral

It had been just under a week since they’d defeated the Krieg Pirates and Zoro was climbing the walls. The slash on his chest was far from healed but at least he was able to get up and around again. The old man had reluctantly let them stay after the battle but it was clear he wanted them gone just as much as Zoro himself wanted to set sail once again. After all, hanging around in some restaurant wasn’t gonna’ make him any stronger.

Sat on a lone chair the swordsman exhaled deeply, tipping his head back.

“You finished bleeding everywhere?”

_Speak of the devil._

He didn’t give a verbal answer, instead just shrugging.

Zeff pulled over a chair and took a seat before proceeding to not say a word.

Zoro turned to him.

“Did you need something?”

“You see I’m torn…”

He furrowed an eyebrow.

“About what?”

“My kid.”

_Oh right, the deaf kid; what was his name again?_

“If you’re looking for parenting tips then you’re talking to the wrong person.”

The old man shot him a look.

“He wants to go with you.”

“No way.” Zoro immediately shutdown the idea.

“But he also doesn’t.”

“Then he’s smart.”

Zeff’s eyes turned furious.

“One more remark out of you and you’re going to need more stitches.”

Zoro silenced.

The old man sighed, scrubbing a hand down his face.

“I thought you would be better than that.”

He furrowed an eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

“Sanji helped you take down the pirates back there, enough so that he’d be a valuable new addition to your crew, not to mention your Captain mentioned you needed a cook, another skill of my boy; but you’re not interested…” Zeff paused. “…because he’s deaf.”

“He would just get himself killed.”

“He’s not a child!”

“Then why the hell is he still here, I mean, he’s the same age as me right?”

Zeff looked ready to serve him for lunch.

“Don’t comment on things you don’t understand, boy.”

Zoro scoffed.

“You said it yourself, old man, he doesn’t want to go with us.”

Suddenly, a butter knife lodged into the wood of the chair having narrowly missed his arm.

“You better shut up and listen.”

He wasn’t exactly scared by the threat but kept his mouth shut regardless.

“Before I adopted Sanji he went through more than you could possibly imagine.”

That caught Zoro’s attention.

_Zeff wasn’t Sanji’s biological Dad?_

“When I found him he didn’t talk because he didn’t know how, couldn’t communicate with anyone because they didn’t know sign language, and was scared of his own damn shadow. After a turn of events I won’t disclose we bought this place and as everything settled down into normalcy he started to come out of his shell, growing with every day that passed until he became as strong as you saw him out there against those pirates. Sanji doesn’t take anyone’s crap and he’s fully capable of looking after himself; however, this crew became his family so it’s not surprising that he would be a little worried about taking off and leaving everything behind, the Baratie was his first home after all.”

The old man paused.

“But the main reason I think he has for not going with you… is that he’d be back to the old days.”

Zoro furrowed an eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m taking a wild guess here that none of you know sign language?”

He shook his head.

“Like I said, Sanji didn’t and couldn’t communicate with anyone on the ship he was on; when you’re eight-years-old that leaves a mark. It’s not like I haven’t noticed that you have all been avoiding him this past week either.”

“Look, if anything you’re just giving me a bunch of reasons why he shouldn’t come with us, I thought when you walked over here you’d be threatening me to take him.” Zoro countered.

“I came over here because I want you to stop acting like children and pull your heads out of your asses. That Captain of yours is the only one who’s remotely made an effort to talk to him and I know for a fact that he offered for Sanji to join you.”

That was news to him.

“And what did he say?”

“Well at first he had a beaming smile on his face, and then he looked over at the rest of you and it disappeared.”

“So he declined?”

Zeff nodded.

“But I know he wants to because he has a dream to find that damn All Blue one day, which is why I thought we would have this chat.”

“What, so you could talk me round? I still think it’s a bad idea.”

“You’re only reasoning is because of his hearing.”

“Is that not enough?!”

The old man shook his head with a disgusted scoff.

“So tell me, if you somehow ended up deaf on your journey with that Captain of yours, would that then make you unable to serve on the crew? Would your sword skills simply vanish into thin air just because you could no longer hear?”

“Of course they wouldn’t because-…”

“You use your hands to carry your swords and being deaf doesn’t affect your body, so what difference is Sanji being deaf when he fights with his legs? If anything his fighting skills are better than yours because he’s not distracted by sounds and his senses are heightened in other areas. Do you see what I’m getting at here?”

Zoro paused.

_He was right._

“Ultimately it’s your Captain’s choice; take him, don’t take him, it’s up to you, but don’t you dare make his disability the reasoning behind your decision, he deserves better than to be judged for something he had no control over.”

Zeff stood up from the seat and headed for the kitchen.

“Why don’t you actually go talk to him rather than treating him like he’s stupid, the kid might surprise ya’?”

Zoro sighed.

“Oh, and you would be lucky to have someone like my Sanji on your crew.”

“Alright alright, chill you damn mother-hen, I got your point loud and clear.” He paused. “And I’m sorry; I’ve been unfair to him and never really gave him a chance even though he did help us take down those pirates.”

“It’s not me you should be apologising to.”

The old man gave him a smile.

“Dinner is at the usual time, don’t be late.”

And with that, the door swung closed to the kitchen.


	2. Chapter 2

In the end, with a little push from Zeff, Sanji decided to join them and so they were on their way to find the witch who’d stolen the Merry.

Sanji was quiet, obviously.

Even though the old man had talked about how the previous crew he’d been with before the Baratie couldn’t understand him, the reality of the situation hadn’t fully hit him until they were sailing towards the Conomi Islands.

Luffy had been talking non-stop, even including the cook in some of his conversations, the problem was however that their Captain seemed to forget the whole deaf part so his ‘Hey, Sanji!’ was usually proceeded by the blonde not even realising he was being spoken to.

Their Captain had spent half the morning effectively talking to himself because Sanji remained none the wiser.

_This is going to be a problem._

Usopp was sat upfront with their newest crewmate and, unlike Luffy, actually had some semblance of a brain up top, meaning that when he talked to Sanji he actually had the common sense to tap him on the shoulder first.

Obviously due to their situation conversations were limited to either more one-sided talks or simple yes-no style questions which the blonde could respond to non-verbally, but Usopp seemed to be getting the hang of it pretty quickly and Sanji clearly appreciated the effort, which was something at least.

He heard a light inhale before a knock on the side of the boat.

“Yeah that’s the Merry; she looks just like how I described her, right? Nice spot, Sanji!” Luffy grinned.

Sanji nodded.

_It’s not like they wouldn’t have spotted it eventually, it wasn’t exactly hidden._

Okay, maybe he was being unfair, but he still didn’t know how any of this was going to work.

* * *

It turned out that finding the navigator was much easier than they'd anticipated, with the four of them practically having bumped into the witch during their walk up from the beach.

She wasn't exactly pleased to see them.

Nami scoffed.

“You brought the deaf guy, really? I thought you needed the ‘ _strongest and best_ ’ crew to reach the One Piece? Now you’ve got a useless swordsman, a scaredy-cat sniper, and a defective waiter.”

Luffy scowled at that.

“Hey!”

Usopp stepped forward in challenge of that last part but Sanji’s hand came out to block his path.

“She can’t talk about you like that!”

But the cook only shrugged before looking back to Nami and beginning to sign, the red-haired witch’s eyes widening a few seconds later as she went pale.

“You… you don’t know anything!” She growled, her bottom lip shaking a little before she rushed off.

“Wait, Nami knows sign language?!” Usopp questioned.

Sanji didn’t comment further though, simply sighing before placing a hand on the sniper’s shoulder, prompting him to begin walking back towards town.

“That was really mean, what’s her problem?” Luffy crossed his arms with a huff.

“Well there’s certainly something she doesn’t want to talk about, that much is obvious.” He added.

“I don’t understand, how did you know she could sign?” Usopp followed up before realising the question was in-answerable. “Did you know because you’ve seen her sign before?”

Sanji nodded.

“Oooooh a big stick!” Their Captain excitedly grinned as he picked it up.

“Gimme that!” The sniper snatched it before handing the tool over to Sanji. “Here, makeshift pencil.”

The cook smirked as he smoothed the dirt beneath his foot before beginning to write.

_‘SIGNED WHEN SHE TALKED AT TABLE’_

“Ohhhh.” The three reacted in unison.

“So how does she know it?”

_‘I DID ASK’_

“And?”

_‘PRIVATE’_

“Oh okay.” Luffy nodded, apparently completely fine with not knowing. “We should probably go find her, she seems really upset.” He turned to Sanji. “Can I have my stick back?”

The blonde returned it with a nod.

“Yosh!” Their Captain held it aloft before walking off down the path. “Let’s go!”

* * *

As they arrived in town he felt the cook prod him on the shoulder.

“You need somethin’?”

He nodded before motioning towards the houses, then miming long-hair, before following it up with another wide motion towards the townspeople.

“Directions?”

The cook’s eyes lit up as he nodded happily.

“I’m guessing the hair thing meant Nami and then houses, so you want directions to Nami’s house?”

Another nod.

Zoro would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little impressed with himself for actually understanding all that. He walked over to someone stood outside the post office.

“Excuse me, I uhh, I don’t have her last name, but do you know someone named Nami?”

The woman’s eyes widened before a scowl followed.

“What do you want with her?”

“We just need to know where she lives.”

“Up the hill there, the one with the tangerine bushes.”

“Thanks.”

Turning back he found the blonde already walking off and furrowed an eyebrow.

“Oi!”

_Wait…_

“He’s deaf.” Zoro groaned before catching up to him. “Oi!”

Sanji turned before motioning to Luffy and Usopp.

“Wait, did you get all that?”

A nod followed.

“Well you could have-…”

He took a breath to calm himself.

“Right, fine… You do whatever it is you need to, I’ll babysit these idiots.”

The cook smirked before continuing on.

* * *

He spotted the tangerine bushes first; rows and rows of them lined the fields as he walked through the house which sat a little further back. A blue-haired girl was sat outside on a wooden chair, he gave a smile.

She turned to him with a wary expression.

“Who are you?”

‘NAME ME S-A-N-J-I’

That certainly got her attention.

‘SISTER NAMI YOU’

“I sure am.” She smiled. “So I’m guessing you know her?”

He nodded.

“Wait, is she here too?”

‘YES’

The girl scoffed.

“Oh well nice of her to come and see me.” The blue-haired girl looked over him. ‘DEAF KNOW HOW?’

‘MENTIONED YOU’

“Ahhh.” She nodded. ‘NAME ME N-O-J-I-K-O’

* * *

Sanji met up with the others in town with Nojiko in tow.

“The cook’s back.” Zoro announced.

“Who’s this?” Usopp enquired.

‘SISTER NAMI TRANSLATOR MY’

“I am not your translator!” Nojiko grumbled.

“It would be really helpful if you were.” Added the swordsman.

"My name's Nojiko, I'm Nami's sister."

“Wait so how can you talk?” The sniper asked.

“My Mom taught me, and later my sister.” She turned to Sanji. ‘TAUGHT NO TALK’

He nodded.

“Yeah, thought so; not everyone has someone who’s willing to take the time.”

‘TRIED OLD MAN MY’

“How’d it go?”

Sanji’s face scrunched up.

“I bet you sound just fine.” Nojiko reassured before swapping. ‘CONSCIOUS FRIENDS THINK?’

He paused for a few seconds before nodding.

“Hey you do you; it’s your voice and your choice.”

“Sanji!” Luffy beamed as he rushed over.

“So you can talk?” Zoro asked.

Sanji grumbled.

‘I JUST LITERALLY SAID NO ASSHOLE!’

Nojiko smirked.

“He even signs angry.” Luffy chuckled.

“Ohhhhhhh so that’s why Nami knows how to sign.” Usopp put the pieces together. “Wait, so what did you say to her earlier?”

~

_“You brought the deaf guy, really? I thought you needed the ‘strongest and best’ crew to reach the One Piece? Now you’ve got a useless swordsman, a scaredy-cat sniper, and a defective waiter.”_

_Sanji shrugged before turning to Nami._

_‘WOULD YOU CALL YOUR SISTER DEFECTIVE TOO?’_

_The navigator’s eyes widened in horror as she turned pale._

_“You… you don’t know anything!” She growled, her bottom lip shaking a little before she rushed off._

~

That got him a shove on the shoulder from Nojiko.

He grumbled.

“No wonder she went running off.” The blue-haired girl sighed. “Sorry she said that to you, I don’t know why she would, it seems unlike her.”

“I said it before but there’s definitely something she’s trying to avoid talking about.” Zoro stated. “Plus that woman I asked for directions to your place earlier didn’t seem too keen on her either, did something happen here?”

“You could say that…” She turned to Luffy. “So are you her Captain?”

“Yep, I’m Luffy, I’m gonna’ be King of the Pirates.”

Nojiko smiled.

“And I suppose you need my sister to get you there.”

“Uh-huh.” He agreed.

“Then you should probably know about Nami’s deal.”


End file.
